Tag: Supreme Court

  • Fawad Chaudhry says govt to file reference in SC for interpretation of Article 63 (A)

    Fawad Chaudhry says govt to file reference in SC for interpretation of Article 63 (A)

    Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Friday that the government would file a reference in the Supreme Court, asking it to interpret Article 63 (A) of the Constitution.

    The minister took to Twitter and in a series of tweets said, “The Supreme Court will be asked about the legal status of the vote of party members when they are clearly involved in horse-trading and changed their loyalties in exchange for money.”

    Fawad said that the government would seek the apex court’s guidance on whether a person, who shifts loyalty for monetary benefit, should be ineligible for lifetime to become a lawmaker or whether they could contest polls again and be elected to parliament.

    “The Supreme Court will be requested to hear the case on a daily basis,” he said.

    Fawad’s words come a day after several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, who were staying at the Sindh House in Islamabad, revealed that they were in the Opposition camp now.

    Article 65-A

    According to Article 63 (A) of the Constitution, a parliamentarian can be disqualified on grounds of defection if he “votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the parliamentary party to which he belongs, in relation to election of the prime minister or chief minister; or a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or a money bill or a Constitution (amendment) bill”.

    The article says that the party head has to declare in writing that the MNA concerned has defected but before making the declaration, the party head will “provide such member with an opportunity to show cause as to why such declaration may not be made against him”.

    After giving the member a chance to explain their reasons, the party head will forward the declaration to the speaker, who will forward it to the chief election commissioner (CEC). The CEC will then have 30 days to confirm the declaration. If confirmed by the CEC, the member “shall cease to be a member of the House and his seat shall become vacant”.

    The government has already indicated that it will use Article 63 (A) to “crush” the no-confidence motion against PM Imran.

  • Supreme Court orders to open Monal restaurant in Islamabad

    Supreme Court orders to open Monal restaurant in Islamabad

    The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered to reopen Monal restaurant in Islamabad and suspended the previous order by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

    At the hearing on Tuesday, Judge Mazahir Naqvi suspended the IHC order which was issued to close down the popular eatery spot.

    The judge asked angrily, “What is this monarchy?”

    “How can the orders be implemented before the documents were even signed,” he asked.

    The restaurant lawyer, Makhdoom Ali Khan, raised the point in the last hearing that the eatery spot was closed down before written documents were issued by the high court.

    He argued that the legal dispute between the Monal and Capital Development Authority (CDA) is still ongoing in civil court.

    He continued that the IHC announced the verdict without recording evidence. Monal restaurant was not even involved as a party in the case.

    On January 11, IHC ordered Islamabad’s Chief Commissioner to seal the Monal Restaurant in Margalla Hills National Park and Navy Golf Course after hearing a case against encroachments.

  • Faisal Vawda challenges lifelong disqualification in Supreme Court

    Faisal Vawda challenges lifelong disqualification in Supreme Court

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Vawda on Friday challenged his lifelong disqualification in the Supreme Court. Vawda was disqualified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in a dual nationality case. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday dismissed Vawda’s plea challenging his disqualification by the ECP.

    Vawda has now filed an appeal in the apex court. The appeal states that the ECP did not have the power to disqualify him for life and that the electoral watchdog was not a competent court of law.

    Faisal Vawda’s appeal was filed by his lawyer, Advocate Wasim Sajjad.

    Earlier this month, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified Vawda as a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) and ordered him to withdraw the notification appointing him as senator for concealing his dual nationality.

    Later, the PTI leader approached the IHC. In his appeal, he stated that Section 8C of the Elections Act, 2017 allowed the ECP to conduct an election but did not empower it to disqualify a candidate. According to him, the commission was directed by the court to “probe the issue of falsity or otherwise of the affidavit expeditiously as per a judgement of the Supreme Court”.

  • Monal restaurant management breaks closure seal to enter premises

    Monal restaurant management breaks closure seal to enter premises

    Monal, a restaurant in Islamabad, which was sealed through a court order, was broken into on Wednesday. Management of the restaurant, which included 70-80 employees, broke a padlock seal and entered the premises of the site on February 16, reports Samaa News.

    Employees reached the site in the morning and asked the Wildlife department workers not to intervene.

    While talking to Samaa News, a Wildlife management board representative, monitoring the closure, said, “They told us that the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the restaurant and allowed them to resume activities.”

    The authorities asked restaurant employees to produce a court order but they refused and broke the padlock seal into pieces.

    After breaking into the restaurant, employees started adjusting seats and tables.

    According to the representative, they had never stopped the restaurant staff to look after their items which were left there and we cooperated with them fully.

    On January 11, Islamabad High Court (IHC) ordered Islamabad’s Chief Commissioner to seal the Monal Restaurant in Margalla Hills National Park.

  • Court reserves decision on PTI’s Faisal Vawda’s appeal against lifetime disqualification

    Court reserves decision on PTI’s Faisal Vawda’s appeal against lifetime disqualification

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved its decision on the maintainability of an application filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Faisal Vawda against his lifetime disqualification from parliament, reports Dawn.

    Last week, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified Vawda as a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) and ordered him to withdraw the notification appointing him as senator for concealing his dual nationality.

    Later, the PTI leader approached the IHC. In his appeal, he stated that Section 8C of the Elections Act, 2017 allowed the ECP to conduct an election but did not empower it to disqualify a candidate. According to him, the commission was directed by the court to “probe the issue of falsity or otherwise of the affidavit expeditiously as per a judgment of the Supreme Court (SC)”.

    The commission said Vawda had submitted a “false affidavit” when submitting nomination papers. However, Vawda’s lawyer, Wasim Sajjad argued in the court that his client [Vawda] did not submit a false affidavit.

    Sajjad maintained that Vawda cancelled his United States (US) passport and acquired a certificate from the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and said that he [Vawda] is only a Pakistani citizen.

    Vawda secured the National Assembly seat (NA-249) in July 2018 and got elected as a Senator last year.

    As per the commission, Vawda can approach the Supreme Court (SC) against its verdict.

  • Supreme Court orders ECP to decide schedule for KP LG polls’ second phase today

    Supreme Court orders ECP to decide schedule for KP LG polls’ second phase today

    The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take a decision by Tuesday (today) on the second phase of local government (LG) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

    Initially, the second phase of LG polls in 18 districts of KP was to be held in the last week of January, but it was rescheduled by the ECP through a Dec 30, 2021 order on applications filed by local MNAs and MPAs.

    On Jan 20 this year, the ECP issued a notification announcing the holding of the second phase of LG elections in KP on March 27.

    But on February 1, the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) Abbottabad bench had, in a verbal order, postponed the elections after accepting petitions of residents of five districts of KP on the grounds that these districts were expected to remain under snow in the last week of March due to heavy snow accumulation and, therefore, it would not be possible to set up polling stations.

    During Monday’s hearing, KP Advocate General Shumail Butt opposed the new election schedule, saying the ECP had not consulted the province before issuing the new election date. 

  • Faisal Vawda no more a Senator, ECP disqualifies in Dual Nationality Case

    Faisal Vawda no more a Senator, ECP disqualifies in Dual Nationality Case

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday disqualified Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Vawda as a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) over his dual nationality at the time of contesting the NA election on a Karachi seat in the 2018 general elections.

    The commission said Vawda had submitted a “false affidavit” when submitting nomination papers.

    The ECP also declared him ineligible for holding the seat of a senator and ordered to withdraw the notification appointing him as senator.

    However, Vawda can approach the Supreme Court (SC) against the verdict, said the ECP.

    ECP had reserved the verdict on Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhel’s plea seeking Vawda’s disqualification on December 23, 2021.

    During the last hearing, Mandokhel and Vawda had appeared before an ECP bench. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja had asked Mandokhel whether he wanted to present more documents or give additional arguments.

    Mandokhel had said it was the 30th hearing of the case but he could not get the answers to his questions. The PPP leader had said, “ECP has been issuing warnings for the last one-and-a-half years.”

    Mandokhel was of the view that Faisal Vawda had held United States (US) nationality at the time of filing his election nomination papers. He said that the concerned residing officer (RO) was not punished as he had rejected his papers instead of disqualifying Vawda.

    The PPP leader said that Vawda had falsely declared in an oath to the ECP that he did not hold any foreign nationality. The PTI leader had concealed his dual nationality during the scrutiny of his nomination papers, said Mandokhel.

    Vawda’s counsel rejected the allegations, saying that his client had never applied for another country’s nationality. He said Vawda was born in the US and that his client had cancelled his American passport.

    After hearing the arguments of both sides, the ECP reserved its verdict in Vawda’s disqualification case.

    The News reported in January 2020 that Vawda was a dual national at the time of filing his nomination papers to the ECP to contest the 2018 general elections. Vawda submitted his nomination papers on June 11, 2018, which were approved by the election body a week later on June 18, the report said.

    However, the Vawda applied for the renunciation of his nationality with the US consulate at Karachi four days after his nomination papers were approved act on June 22, 2018, the report revealed.

  • Ravi Urban project not presented correctly in court, govt will approach SC: PM Khan

    Ravi Urban project not presented correctly in court, govt will approach SC: PM Khan

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan said Friday the government would move the Supreme Court after the Lahore High Court (LHC) nullified the Ravi Urban Development Project.

    Prime minister during his visit to Rakh Jhok forest said that this time the case would be presented in a better manner to appraise the court about the significance of the project in view of urban development and civic facilities, further saying that the case was not presented correctly in LHC.

    PM Imran Khan said wealth creation would help run 40 affiliated industries.

    “We need to set up new cities in view of the growing population, otherwise we will not be able to provide civic facilities to people,” he said.

    The premier mentioned that Lahore in near future could face similar civic problems like Karachi as a result of unplanned urban development.

    The LHC on Tuesday had declared the Ravi Riverfront Urban Development Project (RRUDP) illegal while announcing a verdict on the petitions against the project.

    The court also declared Section 4 of the Ravi Urban Development Authority (amendment) Ordinance 2021 unlawful and unconstitutional.

    The mentioned section is contradictory to Article 144 of the Constitution of Pakistan, it said.

  • SCBA president files petition against lifetime disqualification in SC

    SCBA president files petition against lifetime disqualification in SC

    President Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Mohammad Ahsan Bhoon on Thursday filed a petition against the lifelong disqualification of lawmakers and said that such a law without the right to appeal is unjust.

    The petition asks the Supreme Court (SC) to rule that the declaration by a court of law under Article 62(1)(f) only applies to the election under question, and does not entail a perpetual or lifetime bar on contesting future elections, reports Dawn.

    The petition argues that the lack of clarity regarding the procedure for a declaration under Article 62(1)(f) continues to pose an obstacle to the constitutional protection of citizens under Article 17(2), which allows citizens to form or become a member of any political party.

    It is pertinent to mention here that the result of this petition can affect the outcome of SC verdicts disqualifying former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif, as well as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) disgruntled leader Jahangir Tareen.

    The two were disqualified as lawmakers in judgements rendered in the Panama Papers case on July 28, 2017, and the Hanif Abbasi case on Dec 15, 2017, respectively.

    The contents of the petition said that the principle of lifetime disqualification should only be applied to electoral disputes. Under Article 184/3 of the Constitution, the SC cannot act as a trial court and there is no right to appeal against the decisions made by the apex court, which contradicts the principles of justice.

    The petition said that the lifelong disqualification without the right to appeal is unjust to the voters. 

  • Justice Ayesha Malik takes oath, becomes first woman to be SC Judge

    Justice Ayesha Malik takes oath, becomes first woman to be SC Judge

    Justice Ayesha Malik has taken oath as the Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan. With her appointment, she has become the first woman of the country to reach the apex court.

    Her swearing-in ceremony was held at the apex court today. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed administered the oath to her.

     Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has lauded Ayesha Malik’s appointment.

    Senator Shibli Faraz has termed her appointment as the “historic moment” in the judicial history of Pakistan.

    President Arif Alvi on Friday gave final approval of her elevation. The Judicial Commission of Pakistan had on January 7 approved the elevation with a vote of five for and four against after a heated discussion on whether judges should be appointed based on merit or seniority.